Battle of Cold Harbor

(1864)

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 (with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3). It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.

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Cold Harbor

Waud drawing of the Battle of Cold Harbor.
Library of Congress

May 31 - June 12, 1864

In the overland campaign of 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant with the Army of the Potomac battled General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia for six weeks across central Virginia. At the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna and Totopotomoy Creek, Lee repeatedly stalled, but failed to stop, Grant's southward progress toward Richmond. The next logical military objective for Grant was the crossroads styled by locals Old Cold Harbor.

MAY 31,1864After sparring along the Totopotomoy northeast of Richmond, Grant ordered Major General Philip Sheridan's cavalry to move south and capture the crossroads at Old Cold Harbor. Arriving near the intersection, the Union force ran into Major General Fitzhugh Lee's Confederate horsemen. A sharp contest ensued, soon joined by Confederate infantry under Brigadier General Thomas Clingman of Major General Robert Hoke's division. After a short battle, Union cavalry drove the Confederates beyond the crossroads. The Rebels then started digging new positions a half mile to the southwest.

JUNE 1Lee wished to retake Old Cold Harbor and sent Major General Joseph Kershaw's division to join Hoke in a morning assault. The effort was short and uncoordinated. Hoke failed to press the attack and Sheridan's troopers, armed with Spencer repeating carbines, easily repulsed the assault. Grant, encouraged by this success, ordered up reinforcements and planned his own attack for later the same day. If the Union frontal assault broke through the Confederate defenses, it would place the Union army between Lee and Richmond. After a hot and dusty night march, Major General Horatio Wright's VI Corps arrived and relieved Sheridan's cavalry, but Grant had to delay the attack Major General William Smith's XVIII Corps, Army of the James, marching in the wrong direction under out-of-date orders, had to retrace its route and arrived late in the afternoon. The Union attack finally began at 5 p.m. Finding a fifty yard gap between Hoke's and Kershaw's divisions, Wright's veterans poured through, capturing part of the Confederate lines. A southern counterattack however, sealed off the break and ended the day's fighting. Confederate infantry strengthened their lines that night and waited for the battle to begin next morning.

JUNE 2Disappointed by the failed attack Grant planned another advance for 5 a.m. on June 2. He ordered Major General Winfield Hancock's II Corps to march to the left of the VI Corps. Exhausted by a brutal night march over narrow, dusty roads, the II Corps did not arrive until 6:30 a.m. Grant postponed the attack until 5 p.m. Later that day, he approved a postponement until 4:30 a.m. of June 3 because of the spent condition of Hancock's men. The Union delays gave Lee precious hours, time he used to strengthen his defenses. The Confederates had built simple trenches by daybreak of June 2. Under Lee's personal supervision, these works were expanded and strengthened throughout the day. By nightfall the Confederates occupied an interlocking series of trenches with overlapping fields of fire. Reinforcements under Major General John Breckinridge and Lieutenant General Ambrose Hill arrived and fortified the Confederate right. Lee was ready.

JUNE 3At 4:30 on the morning of June 3 almost 50,000 Federal troops in the II, VI and XVIII Corps launched a massive assault. The Confederate position, now well entrenched, proved too strong for the Union troops. In less than an hour, thousands of Federal soldiers lay dead and dying between the lines. Pinned down by a tremendous volume of Confederate infantry and artillery fire, Grant's men could neither advance nor retreat. With cups, plates, and bayonets, they dug makeshift trenches. Later, when darkness fell, these trenches were joined and improved.

JUNE 4-12The great attack at Cold Harbor was over. Hundreds of wounded Federal soldiers remained on the battlefield for four days as Grant and Lee negotiated a cease-fire. Few survived the ordeal.

From June 4 to June 12 both armies fortified their positions and settled into siege warfare. The days were filled with minor attacks, artillery duels and sniping. With the Union defeat at Cold Harbor, Grant changed his overall strategy and abandoned further direct moves against Richmond. On the night of June 12 Union forces withdrew and marched south towards the James River. During the two week period along the Totopotomoy and at Cold Harbor, the Federal army lost 12,000 killed, wounded, missing and captured while the Confederates suffered almost 4,000 casualties.

Grant's next target was Petersburg and the railroads that provided needed supplies to the Confederate army. Cold Harbor proved to be Lee's last major field victory and changed the course of the war from one of maneuver to one of entrenchment.

Battle of Cold Harbor May 31 - June 12, 1864

After the Battle of North Anna, Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry to move south and capture the strategic crossroads at Old Cold Harbor. On May 31, after a sharp contest with Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, Sheridan and his men seized the intersection. The Confederate troopers were soon joined by Confederate infantry of Maj. Gen. Robert Hoke's division. After a short battle, Union cavalry drove the Confederates beyond the crossroads where they began to build defensive trenches.

Hearing reports that Lee was extending his line to the James River, Grant was determined to extend his left flank, overpower Lee, and come between the Confederates and Richmond, all while keeping access to the James open. On the morning of June 1, Sheridan beat back a half-hearted attack by Hoke’s and Maj. Gen. Joseph Kershaw's divisions. Encouraged by this success, Grant ordered up Maj. Gen. William "Baldy" Smith’s Eighteenth Corps and Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright’s Sixth Corps to relieve Sheridan, and strike the Confederate defenses that same day. However, confused orders and bad roads slowed the movement of the two federal corps; Grant’s impromptu attack was delayed until 5pm. The Yankees briefly broke through the Confederate line, only to be pushed back by a strong counterattack. Meanwhile, General Meade ordered Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock’s Second Corps to march twelve miles overnight to provide support for another assault.

Meade ordered an early morning attack for June 2, but Smith refused. Hancock’s Second Corps had gotten lost during the night march and did not arrive until about 6:30 am that morning. Meade postponed the attack until 5 pm that day but Grant, concerned that Hancock’s men wouldn’t be ready to attack due to exhaustion, advised Meade to wait until June 3. General Lee, taking advantage of this gift, ordered his troops to construct an impressive and intricate series of entrenchments to reinforce his position in the heavily wooded and uneven territory.

At 4:30am on the morning of June 3, the Second, Sixth, and Eighteenth Corps launched the main attack through the darkness and fog .As the attack began, the corps became caught in the swamps, ravines, and heavy vegetation, losing contact with each other. Angles in the Confederate works allowed Lee’s men to easily enfilade the Federal ranks as they advanced. An estimated 7,000 men were killed or wounded within the first thirty minutes of the assault and the massacre continued through the morning. In Hancock’s sector, elements of the Second Corps managed to seize a portion of the Rebel works only to be bombarded by Confederate artillery that turned the trenches a deathtrap. Smith’s Corps was unfavorably funneled into two ravines and subsequently mowed down when they reached the Confederate’s position. Pinned down by the tremendous volume of Confederate fire, the remaining Federals dug trenches of their own, sometimes including bodies of dead comrades as part of their improvised earthworks. At 12:30 pm, after riding the beleaguered Union lines himself, Grant suspended his attack.

From June 4 to June 12, the days were filled with minor attacks, artillery duels, and sniping. On June 7, Lee and Grant a two-hour truce to allow the Federals a chance to retrieve their wounded. However, by then few of the wounded were found alive as thousands had died under the summer sun during those five days. Grant later wrote, "I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made... No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained."

His regrets notwithstanding, Grant planned his next move. He sent Sheridan to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad to the west and on June 12 ordered Meade to evacuate Cold Harbor, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg.

Battle of Cold Harbor: The Folly and Horror FROM CIVIL WAR TIMES MAGAZINE (HISTORYNET.COM)

Ulysses S. Grant (Library of Congress)

Shortly after dawn on June 3, 1864, the Union Army of the Potomac launched a massive frontal assault against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Cold Harbor, Virginia. Intended to break the battered Confederate army and open the road to Richmond, the attack would serve as the conclusion and climax of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland campaign against General Robert E. Lee. The main part of the assault would take slightly less than an hour and, according to some accounts, would cost nearly 7,000 Union casualties. In a war that had seen more than its share of uncompromising slaughter, Cold Harbor would stand alone.

Over the last few years, there has been renewed interest in this tragic engagement that seems to have been overlooked compared to other major battles of Grant’s campaign.

But few analysts have focused attention on what may have been the root cause for this military disaster — the command process within the Army of the Potomac. In human terms, Cold Harbor was an utter catastrophe, the direct result of a flawed command process that finally broke under the strain of battle.

Grant’s campaign during the summer of 1864 was distinguished by almost constant hard and desperate fighting. This style of warfare not only made incredible demands on the average soldier but it also had a severe impact on those in the chain of command and as a result the entire command process. The decision to make the attack was based on poor information and invalid assumptions about the morale and military capabilities of the enemy. More important, the decision to launch the fateful assault and its delayed execution reflected a total lack of command cohesion.

In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general, a rank that had been newly reactivated by Congress, and assumed the position of general-in-chief of the armies of the United States. Almost immediately, Grant moved to execute a new grand strategy for defeating the Confederacy. For the first time, all Union armies would move in a coordinated fashion on all fronts. This was both to prevent the Confederates from using their interior lines of communication to reinforce one another and at the same time put unrelenting military pressure on them. Essentially, Union forces would pound and hammer the Confederate armies, inflicting losses in both men and supplies that they could ill-afford to sustain, while attacking the economic and social infrastructure of the South.

While Grant initially considered returning to the West to oversee the execution of his strategy, he eventually decided to conduct his command of the war from the field, alongside the Army of the Potomac. In Grant’s strategy, his army would have a vital mission: to draw the Army of Northern Virginia into the open and destroy it. In Grant’s view, if Lee’s army was crushed, Richmond would fall by default and the war would end.

Major General George G. Meade (Library of Congress)

The Army of the Potomac posed many problems for Grant in terms of command, however. First, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, the army’s commander and the victor at Gettysburg, had chafed under criticism from the administration and the press, as well as congressional investigations, because he had failed to pursue and destroy Lee’s army in the days following Gettysburg. Meade was seen as irritable, slow, overly cautious and best when on the defensive — not the sort of man to execute Grant’s aggressive strategy. The men who would be Meade’s four infantry corps commanders during the coming campaign were also somewhat suspect. The best of them, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, was a tenacious and talented fighter, but the wounds he received at Gettysburg had not yet healed, and his poor health affected his ability to command.

Given this unsettling picture, and the Army of the Potomac’s reputation for being commanded by gentlemen politicians, it is little wonder that Grant elected to ride into his grand campaign firmly joined at its hip. The army’s part in Grant’s strategy was vital, and he could ill-afford its slowness and tendency to turn back to regroup, rest and resupply as soon as the first engagement was concluded. So when Grant arrived at Meade’s headquarters near Brandy Station on March 10, 1864, everyone including Meade expected the army’s commander to be replaced. But Meade came across to the new general-in-chief as a man of modesty, honesty and true patriotism, and Grant elected to retain him in command.

For his part, Meade was publicly supportive, courteous and subordinate to Grant. Privately, he was not a happy man. His letters to his wife showed his disappointment with Grant’s decision to remain in the field with the Army of the Potomac. His wife urged him to resign and return home. Meade responded that she should be careful not to criticize Grant in public or indicate that there was any problem. He was, after all, retaining his command of a major army, and he would do his duty.

In keeping Meade in his position and by placing himself so close to the Army of the Potomac, Grant was creating a command problem that would eventually result in calamity. The questions that naturally arose revolved around Meade’s actual role and how far Grant would go in directing the army’s activities. Grant would later write that his concept was to make Meade’s position seem as much as possible as though Grant were in Washington and Meade were in the field — Grant issuing the orders for the movement of the army to Meade, and Meade executing them. In other words, Grant would issue broad directives for the maneuvering and conduct of the Army of the Potomac, as well as the armies in other theaters, leaving the detailed tactical execution to Meade.

But Grant’s actual words and conduct at the time indicated something entirely different. Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, one of Grant’s staff officers, wrote that, when speaking to his staff, Grant indicated he would take a more hands-on approach. Porter said that Grant referred to the practice of sending his staff to ‘critical points of the line to keep me promptly advised of what is taking place’ and that when emergencies dictated, he wanted them to communicate his ‘views to commanders, and urge immediate action’ without awaiting specific orders from himself. Further, Grant told them he would place his headquarters near Meade’s and ‘communicate his instructions through that officer.’ This seemed to indicate a role unrestricted to mere broad strategic direction. As a result, the Army of the Potomac appeared to have two heads.

The initial fighting of the campaign, in the Wilderness, demonstrated how much Grant became involved in the details of battle. For example, on the evening of May 5, Grant ordered an attack all along the line to be carried out at 4:30 a.m. on May 6. Meade responded that he had ordered the attack take place at that time, but suggested 6 a.m. instead, adding, ‘Should you permit this change, I will advise the corps commanders.’ Grant replied through his staff that Meade could change the attack to 5 but not 6. It should have seemed obvious to the most casual of observers that this ridiculous process, wherein the general-in-chief and one of his major army commanders were trading dispatches on minor time adjustments, could not continue. But continue it did, from the Wilderness to Spotsylvaniaand on to the North Anna River.

In fact, some did see the absurdity of the situation — but not as one might expect. Grant’s staff quickly began to lobby for the general to simply ignore Meade’s position and bypass him entirely in directing the campaign. Porter recalled a heated discussion that took place among Grant’s staff after the Wilderness regarding Meade’s’somewhat anomalous position.’ With Grant listening intently, they argued that vital time was being lost in transmitting field orders through an intermediary whose position was essentially ‘a false one.’ Some stated that they believed Meade and his staff were modifying Grant’s instructions or that they were ‘elaborated as to change their spirit.’ Finally, as the discussion became more heated, they characterized Meade as having an irascible temper that ‘often irritated officers who came in contact with him.’

Grant waited until the arguments were completed and said that, while the present situation was not totally satisfactory, Meade’s presence relieved him of many duties he would otherwise have to undertake if he assumed a more active role. Porter noted, however, that while Grant maintained his view throughout the war, after those discussions he began to give even ‘closer personal direction in battle to the movements of the subdivisions of the army.’

On the other side of the coin, Meade, though always calm and cooperative in Grant’s presence, read the newspaper accounts of the campaign, which gave every credit to Grant, and began to resent the control that Grant and his staff were exercising. His temper became increasingly foul, and he grew more abrasive with each day. On one occasion Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana made the mistake of reading a dispatch to Meade from Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, informing Grant that his army had engaged the enemy successfully, could now maneuver and, if Grant could inspire the Army of the Potomac to do its share, success would be assured. Meade flew into a rage, telling Dana: ‘Sir! I consider that dispatch an insult to the army I command and to me personally. The Army of the Potomac does not require General Grant’s inspiration or anybody else’s inspiration to make it fight!’

Not surprisingly, the staffs that surrounded Grant and Meade felt even stronger about the situation, and they would be a primary obstruction to command cohesion. Each staff had little respect for the other or its respective commander. Colonel Theodore Lyman wrote at length in his journal about the relationship between the two headquarters’ staffs, and his biggest concern was not so much Grant’s treatment of Meade but the disrespect Grant and his staff showed toward their opponent. Lyman said that from the very beginning, he sensed an air of overconfidence among Grant’s staff, which ‘talked and laughed flippantly about Lee and his army.’ To be certain, Grant fostered some of this attitude in an effort to remove the seemingly mystic spell Lee had cast on the Army of the Potomac. What was most troubling about this kind of talk was that, as the campaign continued and the army fought one bloody engagement after another, the big talk evolved into genuine overconfidence that began to affect Grant’s official assessments and command decisions.

Following the brutal and inconclusive fighting at Spotsylvania, Dana reported to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton that the ‘Rebels have lost all confidence and are already mortally defeated,’ and that Stanton could be certain ‘the end is near as well as sure.’ Meanwhile, Grant told Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck that the Confederate army was ‘really whipped’ and added, ‘I may be mistaken, but I feel that our success over Lee’s army is already insured.’ This miscalculation of Lee’s strength by Grant and his staff would prove to be a critical ingredient in the Cold Harbor disaster.

In the days immediately following Grant and Dana’s pronouncements that Lee’s army was near its end, Grant continued to shift the Army of the Potomac to the left, forcing Lee to remain between the Federal forces and Richmond while still trying to get Lee to come out and fight the final climactic battle. Lee, however, would not take the bait. Meanwhile four weeks of continuous marching and brutal fighting were wearing everyone down. From the soldiers on the line to the generals in command, the emotional and physical strain was quietly and insidiously taking a heavy toll.

Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan (Library of Congress)

On May 29, Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to reconnoiter to the left and probe for Lee’s right, as he suspected Lee might be trying to move past the Federal left flank. Two days later, Sheridan discovered Lee had indeed moved far to his right and had entrenched infantry and cavalry at the Cold Harbor crossing. Sheridan engaged the enemy forces and, after a hard fight, drove them out. His scouts told him that heavier Confederate forces were moving in, however, so he elected to withdraw. But when Grant heard this news, he understood how important that move was. Lee was indeed extending to his right, trying to cut Grant off from the shortest route to the James River and, perhaps more important, his base of supply in Washington, D.C. Grant would later write, ‘The enemy knew the importance of Cold Harbor to us, and seemed determined that we should not hold it.’ Grant immediately ordered Sheridan to return to the crossing and ‘to hold the place at all hazards, until reinforcements could be sent to him.’

With the news from Sheridan, Grant immediately began to issue a series of orders that Meade acted upon with great energy. While it is difficult to place a finger on the precise moment of change, it is apparent Meade then tried to play the role of the proactive tactical commander and that Grant let him do it. The strategic decisions would be Grant’s, but Meade would now attend to the details. Perhaps Grant realized the system he had been using was terribly cumbersome, or perhaps he thought Meade was now capable of tactically executing the campaign as Grant wanted it done. Whatever the reason, Meade was now tactically in control of his army. But things got off to a terrible start.

Major General Horatio Wright’s VI Corps was ordered to pull out of the line and begin marching toward Cold Harbor to relieve Sheridan, but bad roads and slow delivery of orders delayed its arrival. Things were even more confusing for the men of the XVIII Corps, led by Maj. Gen. William F. ‘Baldy’ Smith. His corps was also ordered to move to Cold Harbor, but Grant’s staff made an error in the orders and told Smith to move to the New Castle Ferry, not to Cold Harbor. Smith hurried his corps forward, and it had already arrived at New Castle Ferry, some five or six miles away from Cold Harbor, before an officer from Grant’s staff arrived and told him of the error. Smith moved his men out quickly, but they did not arrive at Cold Harbor until the early afternoon of June 1.

With Sheridan’s troopers replaced by Wright’s and Smith’s exhausted infantry, Meade also ordered Hancock’s II Corps to pull out of the line and march toward Cold Harbor. Shortly thereafter, to the surprise of many, Meade decided to order a frontal assault on the Confederate forces digging in opposite Smith and Wright. Perhaps Meade was trying to prove that if Grant wanted a big push against Lee here, he would be aggressive enough to give him one. The infantrymen, however, were tired from their forced marches, and there had only been time for a ‘hasty reconnaissance’ of the ground in front of the Federal lines. At 4:30 p.m. the infantry attacked and after fierce fighting managed to sweep over the Confederate rifle pits and seize their main trenches, but a strong Southern counterattack forced them back. It had been a useless bloodletting that accomplished little except to provide reconnaissance on enemy strength and positions.

With nightfall, things in the Army of the Potomac became even more unsettled, and Meade began to show signs of stress and fatigue. Theodore Lyman recorded that Meade ‘was in one of his irascible fits to-night.’ Meade complained that Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren and his V Corps had pushed too far forward without orders, adding that Wright was too slow, and that he wished the corps commanders would act for themselves and stop leaning on him. In the midst of all this ranting, an aide to General Smith arrived to report that his commanding officer was in serious need of ammunition and transportation, and that Smith ‘considered his position precarious.’ Using profanity he seldom indulged in, a clearly exasperated Meade roared, ‘Then, why in Hell did he come at all for?’

Winfield Scott Hancock (Library of Congress)

Meade later instructed Smith to be ready for an early morning assault. But Smith cautioned him that his command was not up to such an attack, calling the prospect ’simply preposterous.’ Meade soon discovered he had more problems than Smith’s concerns. He had been counting on the presence of the hardened veterans of Hancock’s II Corps to mount the early morning attack, but their night march to Cold Harbor was going worse than Wright’s had the previous evening. The II Corps had become hopelessly lost and would not arrive until 6:30 a.m.

Learning of Hancock’s lack of progress, Meade issued an order at 12:30 a.m. that the attack would be postponed until 5 p.m. on June 2. All those delays, however, were giving Lee time to shift his forces and dig in. Despite these setbacks, after discussing the issue with his key commanders, Grant still believed that attacking Lee in his present position was the best course of action. Concerned that Hancock’s men were not up to an attack that afternoon, Grant advised Meade to delay the assault until the early morning hours of June 3.

While the decision provided Lee’s army with even more time to entrench and reinforce, Meade’s order to postpone until the next morning did direct commanders to conduct a reconnaissance of the ground in front of their positions. This not only would tell them the nature of the terrain between the Union and Confederate lines but it would also aid in determining the makeup of the enemy’s fortifications. Why no such reconnaissance ever took place is one of the great mysteries surrounding Cold Harbor. It seems inconceivable that experienced commanders would violate what any soldier then or now would see as a crucial element of battlefield preparation.

Hancock’s adjutant, Francis Walker, later wrote that there had been no opportunity to ‘make an adequate reconnaissance of the enemy’s line…it was, beyond question, the most unfortunate decision made during that bloody campaign.’ The fact that Hancock’s adjutant made this comment is telling. Meade’s circular had been clear in that it stated commanders should use the additional time to examine the ground in front of them. So why did Walker state that there had been no opportunity, and why did no other commander make any effort at a reconnaissance? Time should not have been a problem, since the circular went out at 2:30 p.m., which meant there was more than enough daylight left before nightfall to probe the Confederate positions.

The only real reconnaissance was made during the fighting late on June 1, and much had probably changed. The heavy woods between the Union and Confederate positions limited the troops’ ability to see the enemy positions. There was certainly evidence that field fortifications had been prepared, but their nature, their orientation and the enemy strength were totally unknown. All the Union troops could see was some turned earth, and that was what they would attack. Unfortunately for the Army of the Potomac, the freshly dug earth they could see included rifle pits and not just one main line of trenches, but two and even three in some places. Lee and his men had skillfully placed their fortifications so that they followed the uneven terrain and made maximum use of its natural characteristics.

The other odd thing about preparations was that each Federal corps was seemingly left on its own to determine how it was going to attack, with no plans for cooperation. Smith said that the entire concept made it apparent to him that there was no semblance of a military plan involved. So he sent a message to Wright asking him to explain his plan of attack. Smith reasoned that, since Wright’s VI Corps would be on his left, perhaps he could do something to conform to its plan. To Smith’s dismay, Wright replied that his plan was simply to ‘pitch in.’ Therefore Smith realized his only option was to do the same: charge straight ahead and see what happened.

Colonel Charles Wainwright, who served in Sheridan’s cavalry at the time of the campaign, heard about the attack and the lack of planning in the days after the battle. He commented in his diary that ‘there was a still more absurd order issued, for each command to attack without reference to its neighbors, as they saw fit; an order which looked as if the commander, whoever he is, had either lost his head entirely, or wanted to shift the responsibility off his own shoulders.’ Clearly, any remaining semblance of command cohesion was gone.

In the darkness preceding dawn on June 3, all five corps of the Army of the Potomac began to form up in a long, almost unbroken line. The concept for the attack was simple but without any solid military logic. The II, VI and XVIII corps would conduct the main attack on Lee’s right. Meanwhile the V and IX corps under Maj. Gens. Gouverneur Warren and Ambrose Burnside, respectively, would attack the left of the Army of Northern Virginia to hold the units there in place and prevent Lee from transferring them to help hold the right side of his line. The only coordination in this plan was that everyone would attack at 4:30 a.m.

At the appointed time, a signal gun sounded and the Army of the Potomac stepped off in a heavy mist and fog. Within minutes, as the first wave moved forward, the heavy vegetation and previously unseen swamps and wetlands began to break up the neat formations, and any appearance of coordination vanished within the corps. Thus the assault quickly became a collection of isolated, individual actions. Further, as the V Corps advanced and the Confederate fortifications came into view, each Union formation began to square up with the works at its front. Given the configuration of Lee’s lines and because the Federals had not previously reconnoitered the ground, this approach caused their formations to depart off at odd angles from one another, and each corps began to lose contact with the units next to it. As a result, when the Confederates opened fire, they were able to enfilade the Union attackers with devastating effectiveness.

In a war that had seen more than its share of slaughter, Cold Harbor set a new and terrible standard. The Union forces advanced under a storm of rifle and artillery fire, and men went down in large groups under sweeping volleys. In the course of the first hour two waves went forward, and only Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow’s division of Hancock’s corps met with success, managing to seize and hold a portion of Lee’s far right. Here again, however, command cohesion failed. Despite Barlow’s repeated requests, Brig. Gen. David B. Birney’s division, which was in reserve, stayed where it was and was never ordered to move forward to exploit what Barlow’s men had gained. The remaining four Union corps went forward, some getting farther than others, until the overwhelming fire from Lee’s entrenchments slowed, stopped and eventually pinned down the Federals. The embattled troops simply dug in where they were and tried to survive.

Command communications were so extremely confused that there was no control over the attack. Meade and his staff were oddly disconnected from the battle because the woods filtered the noise of battle, making it more difficult for them to get a feel for what was happening. The reports that came into Meade’s headquarters conveyed a confusing picture, and the lack of planning and coordination soon became apparent. Each of the three corps commanders on the Union left complained to Meade that the corps on his right or left had failed to protect him from enfilading fire. Meade’s curious response was to send copies of each corps commander’s complaint to the others. He kept trying to urge his commanders forward, but they became increasingly insistent that, from their particular viewpoint, nothing could be done.

At 7 a.m., with attacks failing up and down the line, Meade sent Grant a message advising him, ‘I should be glad to have your views as to the continuance of these attacks, if unsuccessful.’ This dispatch in some ways seemed to indicate that Meade was surrendering his control back to Grant. Grant quickly replied, ‘The moment it becomes certain that an assault cannot succeed, suspend the offensive, but when one does succeed push it vigorously, and if necessary pile in troops at the successful point from wherever they can be taken.’ With that dispatch sent, Grant moved to Meade’s headquarters and, for all intents and purposes, once again took tactical control of the Army of the Potomac.

Grant had been nearby at his headquarters and was apparently receiving the same reports as Meade. In addition, his staff went out to ride the lines and gather information, which they funneled back to the general-in-chief. However, things were happening faster than they could report them. After moving to Meade’s headquarters, Grant decided to ride out to the lines himself and consult directly with the corps commanders. That action could leave no doubt as to who was now in command. Grant returned to Meade’s headquarters, and at 12:30 p.m. he issued an order suspending the assault.

Later that afternoon an order was sent out to try another assault, but the reaction it received varied. There were some isolated moves forward, but they apparently amounted to nothing more than brief exchanges of rifle fire. For his part, Baldy Smith flatly refused to obey the order. Interestingly, he was never sanctioned for that move. Finally, while some senior officers would deny it ever happened, there were units that simply refused to advance. One soldier who witnessed that phenomenon later wrote: ‘The army to a man refused to obey the order, presumably from General Grant, to renew the assault. I heard the order given, and I saw it disobeyed.’ The common soldier had put in his vote, and the battle for the crossing at Cold Harbor was over.

Grant’s initial report to General Halleck, sent at 2 p.m., was shocking in its understatement. He reported, ‘Our loss was not severe, nor do I suppose the enemy to have lost heavily.’ The magnitude of what had happened and the ghastly cost of this command blunder would soon become apparent, however. While the exact number of casualties has become an item of debate, no matter their total, Cold Harbor had been an unmitigated Federal disaster.

That night Grant finally made his feelings known to his staff: ‘I regret this assault more than any one I have ever ordered. I regarded it as a stern necessity, and believed it would bring compensating results; but, as it has proved, no advantages have been gained sufficient to justify the heavy losses suffered.’ With that said, as was his manner, Grant focused his energies on planning his next moves. He seldom spoke of Cold Harbor again.

Nevertheless, there was a profound change at Grant’s headquarters. Colonel James H. Wilson described it as a sense of despondency. Wilson said that Grant was deeply disappointed that he had not been able to overwhelm Lee, and upset that his subordinates had not properly attended to the detailed planning required to carry out his orders. According to Wilson, Grant was now aware that this was perhaps being done so as to shift responsibility to him. In addition, his staff was now seeing the disastrous effects of the continuous use of frontal assaults and feared the army would come apart if that approach continued. One thing was certain: The cockiness that had been the hallmark of Grant’s staff when the campaign began was now gone, and a sense of harsh reality had set in.

For his part, Meade would take a petulant attitude. In a meeting with Baldy Smith two days after the battle, he told his corps commander that he had worked out every plan for every move since the campaign began. He then complained about the newspapers being full of the activities of ‘Grant’s army’ and that he was tired of it. He finished by saying that he was now ‘determined to let General Grant plan his own battles.’ Smith later wrote that while he had no knowledge of the facts, he believed that Meade simply did not try to execute Grant’s orders at Cold Harbor properly because he was angry about his treatment by Grant and by the press. Whatever Meade’s thinking had been, the result was that at Cold Harbor no one was in effective command of the Army of the Potomac.

The tragedy of Cold Harbor was that it was avoidable. Its leadership failed, and failed miserably. Cold Harbor was a horrible example of what happens when command cohesion breaks down under the weight of an unworkable system, when the stress of battle overcomes professionalism and when otherwise good officers forget the basics of command and their responsibilities as commanders. In the end, their men, average soldiers, paid the ultimate and terrible price.

Cold Harbor Facts

Who fought in the Battle of Cold Harbor?

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought between the Federal Army of the Potomac under Major General George Meade and directly supervised by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of all Union forces, and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee.

Grant was reinforced by Major General William F. Smith's corps from Major General Benjamin Butler's Army of the James. Lee was reinforced by Major General Robert F. Hoke's Division from General P.G.T. Beuregard's forces south of the James River and Major General John C. Breckenridge's division from the Shenandoah Valley.

When was the Battle of Cold Harbor fought?

The Battle of Cold Harbor lasted from May 31 until June 12, 1864. The most intense fighting, Grant''s Grand Assault, was on June 3.

Where was the Battle of Cold Harbor fought?

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought about ten miles northeast of Richmond, Virginia, in what is now the city of Mechanicsville. Cold Harbor was not a port or even on the water. The name comes from the term for an tavern where you could sleep (harbor) but that did not serve hot meals.

How many men fought in the Battle of Cold Harbor?

Grant commanded about 108,000 men. Lee had about 59,000. While Lee's army was composed almost entirely of experienced veterans, many Union troops were new conscripts or artillerymen who had spent the war behind the lines in the Washington defences and who now fought as infantry.

How many casualties were there in the Battle of Cold Harbor? How many men died at Cold Harbor?

There are no exact numbers available and estimates vary for the number of casualties at the Battle of Cold Habor. Union casualties are estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000, with Confederate casualties between 1,500 and 5,000. It was one of the most lopsided casualty rates in the war.

Who won the Battle of Cold Harbor?

The Battle of Cold Harbor was was a clear Confederate victory. It was Lee's last great victory of the Civil War.

Why was the Battle of Cold Harbor important?

Lee had prevented Grant from breaking through the Confederate lines to capture Richmond, less than 10 miles away. He had caused Grant so many casualties that anti-war sentiment in the north became a serious issue for the Lincoln administration. The battle forced Grant to once more disengage and find another way around Confederate entrenchments - which he did by moving his army to Petersburg.

2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery

The monument to the Second Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery Regiment is at the last pulloff on the auto tour at Cold Harbor. It is next to the 'A Bloody Baptism of Fire' wayside marker, which tells more of the regiment's story.

The front of the monument has the story of the regiment's attack on June 1 inscribed around the raised Greek cross symbol of the Sixth Corps. The rear of the monument has the crossed cannon symbol of the artillery

Late on the afternoon of June 1, 1864, Col. Elisha Strong Kellogg and his 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery attacked Confederate entenchments to the west along with other Federal troops from the Sixth and Eighteenth Corps. Kellogg advanced his 1500 men across this ground in three battalions with weapons at port arms.

The combined Union attacks resulted in the capture of approximately 300 prisoners. Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke's Confederate division halted their further progress with a withering fire delivered from the left flank. Kellogg was killed at the head of the first battalion in front of the abatis and breastworks held by Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Clingman's brigade.

The remaining men of the 2nd Connecticut regrouped under Col. Emory Upton, and assisted in the capture of the Confederate line at sunset. However, more than 330 of its men fell killed and wounded in these attacks.

May this unit that began the say raw and inexperienced nevermore be known as a "band box" regiment...

Cold Harbor Cemetery Mortuary Cannon

8th New York Heavy Artillery

The monument to the 8th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment is on the west side of the National Cemetery. (37.589062° N, 77.279969° W; map) It was erected in 1909 by the State of New York.

The top of the eleven foot high monument has a round tablet of the Seal of the State of New York. At the base of the monument the crossed cannon symbol of the artillery support the trefoil symbol of the Second Corps. The dates 62 and 65 when the regiment was mustered in and out are surrounded by laurel leaves on each side of the base.

Medal Of Honor
Voluntarily exposed himself to the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters and located the body of his colonel who had been killed close to the enemy's lines. Under cover of darkness, with 4 companions, he recovered the body and brought it within the Union lines, having approached within a few feet of the Confederate pickets while so engaged.

Medal Of Honor
Though himself wounded, voluntarily left the rifle pits, crept out between the lines and, exposed to the severe fire of the enemy's guns at close range, brought within the lines 2 wounded and helpless comrades.

Medal Of Honor
Rank and organization: Colonel, 40th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Cold Harbor, Va., June 1, 1864. Entered service at: Reading Pa. Birth: Fort Smith, Indian Ter. Date of issue: December 5, 1893.
Citation:
Led the assaults of his brigade upon the enemy's works, where he had 2 horses shot under him

David P. Casey (1842 to January 4, 1893) was an Irish soldier who fought in the American Civil War. Casey received the United States' highest award for bravery during combat, the Medal of Honor, for his action during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia on 3 June 1864. He was honored with the award on 14 September 1888

When Brig. Gen. Charles A. Heckman was captured at the Battle of Proctor's Creek, Stannard replaced him in command of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, XVIII Corps. In the Battle of Cold Harbor, he was wounded in the left thigh but continued to lead his brigade through the Second Battle of Petersburg.

On May 29, Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to reconnoiter to the left and probe for Lee’s right, as he suspected Lee might be trying to move past the Federal left flank. Two days later, Sheridan discovered Lee had indeed moved far to his right and had entrenched infantry and cavalry at the Cold Harbor crossing. Sheridan engaged the enemy forces and, after a hard fight, drove them out.